Why are some bosses so abusive?
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Being abusive reduces stress.
Robert Sapolsky, Stanford professor and author of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers referred to it as “stress management (consisting) of avoiding ulcers by giving them.”
Richard Conniff’s interesting book, The Ape in the Corner Office: How to Make Friends, Win Fights and Work Smarter by Understanding Human Nature quotes Sapolsky on the subject:
Numerous psychoendocrine studies show that in a stressful or frustrating circumstance, the magnitude of the subsequent stress-repsonse is decreased if the organism is provided with an outlet for frustration. For example, the (glucocorticoid) secretion triggered by electric shock in a rat is diminished if the rat is provided with a bar of wood to gnaw on, a running wheel, or, as one of the most effective outlets, access to another rat to bite.
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